Jonathan Blow on the sales performance of Braid Anniversary Edition

[@BlowFan]

EDIT: Several game journalists wrote articles based on this video. Also there was some thread on a site called ResetEra that I had not heard about before. *I am sorry* for generating bothersome publicity for Jonathan Blow. You can check out Braid Anniversary Edition here: store.steampowered.com/app/499180

[@AntonGully]

I bounced off Braid hard, but the commentary sounds interesting. The updated graphics seem pointless TBH, when you're seeing people going crazy over crusty retro-looking new games. If Phil Fish ever releases a Fez anniversary edition with a commentary track, I expect it to be nothing but those screaming goats that sound like they're being murdered.

[@ErdrickHero]

Honestly I didn't care for Braid the first time. I wish you success in future endeavours making NEW things. But even if I did like Braid, I wouldn't buy it again, I would just play what I already have.

[@pleggli]

@@ErdrickHero I had been planning to play it again a few years ago but when I heard about the anniversary edition I decided to wait and I am glad I did because the updated game looks so much better. It also turns out that 15 years or so was enough time for me to forget how to solve most of the puzzles which was also was good for replay value.

[@4.0.4]

ResetEra is the sewer below the gutter of seedy places like Kotaku and TheGamer. Avoid.

[@fantomas1770]

lmao what have you done

[@XeenimChoorch-nx8wx]

He is merging timelines with his parallel self that didn’t succeed with Braid in 2008

[@darthtesla301]

You do a really good job editing these clips and slow drip feeding me content for my blow addiction fix

[@BlowFan]

Thank you!

[@htpkey]

"my blow addiction" Nicely worded! 😂

[@ringo2715]

I've been following Jon Blow, listening to his pod cast every once in a while, and been hyped for buying braid on the Switch. Literally never heard the game had launched. I thought it was all lead up to the launch. Never saw it in a Nintendo direct, never saw a launch trailer, nothing. I'm going to go buy it now but only because I know it's finally available

[@nothappyz]

Exactly, it looks like this game was advertised only to jon's fans 😅

[@ringo2715]

@@nothappyz that's the thing I am a fan of Jon, have been for a long time, I've also been specifically looking forward to this game release and even I never heard it came out. I don't think it was advertised at all. Maybe on Twitter but not through any of the traditional advertising channels.

[@nerdError0XF]

well i guess its only been advertised on his twitter really. so thats why i didnt miss it but i guess thats also why most people did

[@MetroAndroid]

Wow, I got a notification in my Steam launch announcements, and it even had a special banner at the very top of the front page of Steam when it released IIRC.

[@oscarfriberg7661]

I hope he takes the lesson and learn how to market his games properly. You can’t just release a game without telling anybody about it, and then expect people to flock around it and buy it. Maybe it worked in the early XLA days, but those days are long gone. Most of the target audience also already have the original game in their Steam library. Why should they buy it again?

[@perguto]

Should've got Soulja Boi to advertise the game

[@MochaRitz]

Unironically would've been a good investment.

[@DavidsKanal]

Braid Anniversary Edition, to me, sounds like a niche product. Nothing wrong with that, I think it's immensely interesting and certainly a great resource for game developers and people interested in the game development process, but that's generally a tiny group compared to the people who buy games to play.

[@laden6675]

There's many new gamers since the original release date, why are they not playing this?

[@Mr.ForgeMan]

@@laden6675 I bought Braid: A. E. 2 days ago, incredible game! Never the less I think new gamers doesn't know about the original Braid because It's old, and there a lot more indie games than before, they rather play something new than remaster of the 16 years old indie game. Remastered version get bought by people who are interested in indie games history and came across this game, or either who played the original and wanted to re-play it in the remastered version, which is a tiny group of people.

[@juansotomayor9076]

I'm just glad he's done it, the game now exists forever as a resource and as a statement on the artistic potential of videogames.

[@SlyAceZeta]

2:48 "'Did launching on so many platforms make a big difference?' It made a difference, but the problem is, most of those platforms are dead now." 3:37 "'Did I promote the game at fests and cons?' No. There just isn't that much in the way of good places to do that anymore." 4:12 "'Do I think KZbin interviews and podcasts are good game promotion?' Most of them aren't, but, you know, if you get a chance to go on Joe Rogan and talk about your game, I'm sure that'll sell some copies." 4:35 "'PR almost always wants us to do cons.' Yeah, I don't think cons have any real value in terms of promotion." With all of this, Braid's re-release selling poorly is not surprising to me at all. I hadn't even heard of Braid re-releasing. This guy has no idea how to do marketing. Thank you for showing the context to his comments.

[@vobilu]

Seriously. I had heard a few rumblings last year about it coming but absolutely nothing since. And now it's apparently been out for months? Yeah, not surprised Mr. Blow. But I guess streaming random games is a better use of his time than working on any form of marketing.

[@jordanmoore8381]

RE: the first quote, I heard "Sony" as "so many" but I might be wrong

[@SlyAceZeta]

​@@jordanmoore8381 oh you're right, my bad

[@jordanmoore8381]

@@SlyAceZeta No probs at all - I heard "Sony" after reading your handy list of timestamps then had to listen to it again a few times to check!

[@Sourusophyexe]

It's hilarious how JB thinks that going on Joe Rogan podcast "might sell some copies" like you know, in his mind, it's like maybe 10 or 20 or 100. Like it's not big at all. While nowadays in reality, streamers and KZbinrs are the best way to market your game and propel it towards success. He is right about conventions or festivals being worthless though. It's a waste of money for tickets and accommodation, unless you plan to somehow attract investors and people that can collab/work with you or have a general play-test (but it's still not that good since people will just leave after 10-15 minutes - you can do it online or even pay somebody for quality). The only game festival that is 100% worth is "Steam Game Fest", that is online and costs you ZERO money. And maybe some other smaller *online* game fests catered towards your category like some "puzzle game fest". He is right, about Internet being a dead-place, but there are still platforms to market on lol. It's just out of his outdated way of understanding, since in 2008 platforms like YT were amateur and live-streaming almost didn't exist and was beyond obscure. Most people get their news from YT feed or Tiktok feed or Instagram feed or maybe Tiktok/Reddit. They see something pop up and follow it. Or they see some KZbinrs/streamers talk about it.

[@dorbie]

😥8 years since the launch of The Witness is a long time to spend wandering the desert preaching about compilers and building Sobokan.

[@jasonmp85]

A long time for who?

[@Raxfyr]

@@jasonmp85 people who want to make money selling games presumably

[@dorbie]

@@jasonmp85 A long time for anyone paying the bills with no revenue stream.

[@martindbp]

Yep... Building one game every 8+ years without much external feedback just based on a feeling is extremely risky, bound to blow up at some point. But I appreciate the dedication to the craft, I'll buy it just to support the studio.

[@dorbie]

@@martindbp If you consider the effort invested in Jai, it's clear that it has impacted schedule and expenses, but it's a longer term investment. It's potentially ruinous for a company operating at the scale of Thekla, but the mission is not merely about delivering games. Blow just has to pull on every loose end on every wool jersey he sees 🤣.

[@anonymousweeble2224]

This was great to see how the answer changed over time - good editing, and patience gathering these clips!

[@BlowFan]

Thank you! It's nice when your efforts are acknowledged! :)

[@alwaysabiggafish3305]

A game like Braid doesnt need a rerelease. Started its life as a digital download indie game, and thats what it still is. Gamers buy rereleases of childhood favourites or games they cannot play anymore due to older consoles. There was definitely some hubris in remastering a game like Braid.

[@ScottSheppardTheWombat]

Braid is one of my (not childhood) favorites that I appreciate the rerelease of. So, not sure this is a totally valid comment.

[@APaleDot]

@@ScottSheppardTheWombat The point is that you can still buy the original, so the re-release isn't as appealing.

[@danielmoore7105]

I bought it for the better graphics and so that World 6 didn't look terrible. Commentary was disappointing, though.

[@hellkrai]

@@APaleDot actually you cannot, other than steam before this release. (though in the video he says steam is the best selling platform) The original wasn't available on 8th Gen platforms before this release.

[@edgepixel8467]

He overestimated the appeal of Braid. I never bought it, I never felt the itch to play it. And I bought other indies. It had its place and time, it opened doors, but in itself, it's not that appealing of an experience.

[@chekote]

I’m a huge Braid fan and I had no idea there was an anniversary edition. That lack of exposure might go a long way to explaining why it’s not selling well.

[@RichieAnthonyGuitar]

Once it was announced my immediate thoughts were "that's neat, not sure if anyone's going back to it though"

[@ninomojo]

He should open a Patreon just for the compiler and language

[@APaleDot]

agree

[@СуперканалВлада]

If he doesn't I'm gonna make one for him instead so if he sues me he can win bazillion dollars and compile more languages💯💯💯

[@4.0.4]

Then it's gonna be in closed beta development for 10 more years though.

[@fullmontis]

I don't get why he hasn't done this earlier. Projects like jai are what patreon is made for. I am not sure if it is him just being stubborn (wouldn't be a surprise lol)

[@ninomojo]

@@fullmontis Easy: if people start paying every month, they're gonna start demanding that he releases it. But he doesn't want to, because it's not ready. If he releases it before it's fully what he envisions, then he will have to update it to a v2 and change some important things, but people will complain that it breaks compatibility with v1, and they'll start branching it and creating their own take on it. Which is exactly why other languages are a complete mess. So he wants to keep it private for as long as possible, until all the foundations are as good as he thinks they can be. This is a really great thing that I applaud. It does need to come out at some point though! But Patreon would be basically a sort of "commercial" pressure to release it before it's where it should be, which he wants to avoid.

[@jamesoloughlin]

lmao 🤣 funniest line ever. “Well thank you for that. Now they are terrible minus one.”

[@karlimo4034]

Dude can´t help himself, he needs to roast you even if you are being nice. He is a real life Sheldon Cooper but bitter and more cynical. Very unintentionally funny dude.

[@SETHthegodofchaos]

@@karlimo4034 how did he roast him there? Its just making light fun of the situation. you could even say that he isnt taking himself and the situation too seriously. If thats not humor I can understand. But seeing everything in a negative lense, I dunno, who really is the bitter one then?

[@johanw2267]

@@karlimo4034 That wasn't a roast

[@jamesoloughlin]

@@karlimo4034 Sheldon Cooper is a funny and accurate comparison for this personality trait. 😂

[@tmasbrbosa]

​@@jamesoloughlininteligent? yeah I agree

[@downthecrop]

People always ask me: how do you succeed in the games industry and this time I don't know.

[@slahserTV]

Just be yourself /s

[@htpkey]

Work hard, play hard /s

[@Zorklis]

Make low end games that can run well (low-end hardware) and feel expensive but are unique and fun but are don't do poor selling genres (RTS/Strategy/puzzles/text-based)

[@6IGNITION9]

Find an underserved market and pwn it

[@dimarichmain]

Man

[@danielwalley6554]

To be honest, his company's probably in trouble. It's hard to picture the next game he's working on being a great seller either, just in terms of it being a top down puzzle game - it's unlikely to catch people's attention unless the gameplay is genuinely revolutionary. Gamedev's a scary business when there's a lot of overhead involved. Makes me consider never shifting away from working solo or with very small teams of three or less, no office, etc. Minimum overhead basically. I guess the trouble with that is you limit your ambition. Pros and cons.

[@snowflyer9737]

I definitely agree. The Witness got it's foot in the door largely due to the First Person POV and having an interesting aesthetic. A top down Sokoban game has nowhere close to the same mass appeal, even if it turns out every bit as good as the Witness. He needs to get the game out already so they stop sinking money into this, and can move onto another game.

[@sergiorodrigoroyo5079]

The guy plays a massive gamble with every game's revenue, reinvesting everything on the next game. This is like jumping off a cliff, surviving, and climbing up again to do it again. Or going to the casino, playing roulette, and expecting to bet everything every time and win so you can bet again and win again a minute later. It's just dumb. What is he expecting? At some point the new game is not going to sell and he'll just go out of business. But this is common sense and it's not a responsible way to run a company. Also, 8 years to release a game that looks like a Unity tutorial game while faffing with his programming language side-project. What a joke. Not surprised the new game is still not out.

[@martindbp]

​@@snowflyer9737 Hopefully it earns enough that he can continue as a sole indie developer. But no doubt the next game will be much smaller in scope.

[@XeenimChoorch-nx8wx]

Well, he got lucky with Braid and has cruised through life off that success. Only now is he merging timelines with his parallel self that didn’t succeed back then

[@ivanmilanov8386]

@@XeenimChoorch-nx8wx The WItness was a success too

[@glyntaylorwilliams]

I didn't even know Braid Anniversay edition was a thing, until I watched this video. I only watch these videos because I got addicted to Blow rants. And youtube recommended me this video.

[@htpkey]

I bought the game at launch on the PS5, it had one of the best game developer commentaries of all time (puzzle design, graphics, sound)!

[@lion123]

It is the best dev commentary so far, period. Rewind and forward, images and videos playing alongside it, context portals, realtime markings - they've delivered the ultimate commentary.

[@htpkey]

@@lion123 Agree! Game dev commentary is pretty rare. Even when Valve does it, it hasn't been as extensive as it is in Braid AE. This is an achievement!

[@spfy]

I got Braid years and years ago but never ended up playing it much. Do you think it'd be a good experience to play with commentary from the beginning? Or it would spoil the puzzles?

[@lion123]

@@spfy there's a disclaimer in the dev commentary section that it is advised to complete the game first. Apart from obvious spoilers, commentary can suffer if you lack the context

[@htpkey]

@@spfy Just like user lion123 said, context is important. It is best to complete the level first, before reading the commentary "popups" for that level.

[@nosferadu]

I think Braid AE could get a bunch more sales if Jon just sent notices to a number of KZbinrs telling them about the release and all the features. In particular I think content creators in the fields of game design and development might at least mention the game to their audiences, or even do in-depth reviews, as the game can be easily recommended to anyone making games or looking to do so.

[@XeenimChoorch-nx8wx]

@eliuthperez1064 Do people just hate someone randomly out of the blue for no reason? Is may it be possible it’s said persons behavior that draws the hate? I suspect it’s the latter… strongly so.

[@mescellaneous]

unless it was a huge remaster of an old game, why would people play/promote it? the truth is that, it was initially rumored by jon to be just added commentary. calling it anniversary is cute, but it is being sold like braid 2 and he delisted the original so that you have to buy this new version. and unless it is braid 2, no one is going to pay full price if they were not interested for the entire time braid was available for purchase. and if we're being honest, commentary is not gameplay. as much as the loyal fanbase were hyping up the remaster and the commentary, only the quality of the new levels mattered, and it did not meet the standard to generate hype over it. you pay for half a new game and the new part isn't even that good.

[@darkbsp]

I'm not sure why he thought a re-master of a mostly (these days) obscure 2D puzzle platformer would sell tens-to-hundreds of thousands of copies in its first month or something. Sympathies to Blow but it was a really large miscalibration on his end to invest so much of his studio's resources into this. It's a very niche project and should have been scoped appropriately (just in terms of finances -- I get that in and of itself it's a great achievement in commentary, remastering value, etc.).

[@Salantor]

"I'm not sure why he thought" But did he though?

[@Zanthous_]

@@Salantor well it certainly sounds like it didn't meet his expectations

[@tiranito2834]

@@Zanthous_ It sounds to me like he just wanted to improve upon the rough edges of the game, and since the game was already finished, it's not like he's lost any money for building upon it and releasing it. Sure, not going to make as much money as a triple A game, but are we seriously going to start comparing Braid to COD? are we this out of touch?

[@darkbsp]

@@tiranito2834 Have you not watched the video? This was a very large project where Blow invested a great deal of money and it has not returned what he hoped. It's why he references multiple times that the health of his studio depends largely upon how well this remaster sells. And it ended up not selling well at all compared to his expectations.

[@eliuthperez1064]

​@@tiranito2834Seems like you haven't play the game. They remastered ALL the graphics (and added a little effect that makes them look like they are being painted). They also added new music. Yes, they already had the game but the remaster was huge

[@KaptenKetchup]

Thats sad to hear. I'm not too surprised though. Both the trailers on Jon's channel have less than 50k views. The trailer on Nintendo of America has less than 100k. So there might not be too many people who even know the game exists.

[@AntonGully]

Correct me if I'm wrong but there was like 8 years between The Witness and Braid Anniversary Edition being released. Just ask Juggernaut: momentum is a thing.

[@michaelbecker7288]

This is 100% a marketing issue. Nobody knew this game came out. If more work went into getting it out there it probably would have sold just fine. Plenty of people want an opportunity to play braid nowadays.

[@Sourusophyexe]

@@AntonGully yeah, but I don't think it's a big factor. It's really not. If a "momentum" was a thing, then there wouldn't be a phenomena of first time studios or even solo developers having big hits and there is lots of them especially in horror community. ULTRAKILL, Vampire Survivors, Lethal Company, Choo-Choo Charles (which was very overhyped and under-delivered imo, but still sold insanely well, because of manufacturing attention on YT), Content Warning, Amanda the Adventurer, SIGNALIS, Dredge. And so on and so on. The thing is that Braid has no audience and no attention. Half of those popular games are "coop survival" like Lethal Company or Content Warning. Or are "streamer bait" or something that can fill in the down-time in between games, like you can play Vampire Survivors while waiting in queue for a game in League of Legends for 10-15 minutes. For what audience is Braid? It's mainly for people who have played Braid and want a in-depth understanding and closure that went into the game. Is that correct? But I guess maybe in some sense, momentum matters. Maybe JB should have marketed or hyped up the game to bring attention to it. Maybe let's rephrase it this way... Momentum is needed, when there is no organic, natural market for something. Braid was made in 2008. The gaming industry has changed like 4 times in 16 years or maybe even more. The Internet is very rapid place. My small town hasn't changed much in 20 years besides planting some new trees & fixing rotten/falling structures, while in a year or two there are massive new trends online. Like somebody said it's a "re-master of a mostly (these days) obscure 2D puzzle platformer". There is no market and growth in those areas. Gamers these days want to play fast-paced coop games that have infinite replay value. It's the opposite of what Braid is (unless you want to speedrun the game, which is even more obscure in itself as well).

[@karlhendrikse]

I knew it came out but like, I already plaid Braid. It was fine, but once per lifetime is enough. I think that's true for pretty much everyone who played it.

[@Kolbiathan]

Heard about Braid Anniversary Edition last year and didn't even know it was out until right now lol

[@theshuggie]

Dang that’s unfortunate. I was waiting for a sale, but I just bought it after watching this to support.

[@nerdError0XF]

Summer fest already happened and it had like 75% sale for a few weeks. You kinda missed a lot :D But yea, i myself bought it on release with 50% sale, and then bought it for my friends on sale, to get the most value from the full price

[@theshuggie]

@@nerdError0XF I didn’t hear about it until recently.

[@globalistgamer6418]

Terrible - 3

[@legoguy217]

3:10 Wait, wait was the dev commentary supposed to be a selling point? Oof. The only people that'd care enough to listen to dev. commentaries are hardcore fans and other developers that are curious on the design process. I don't see a large audience frothing at the mouth to purchase a remake because it had a killer dev commentary...

[@notusingmyrealnamegoogle6232]

He would have been better off just doing a live stream where he plays through it and gives commentary on each aspect plus a 10th anniversary sale. It’s an interesting lesson.

[@chepulis]

I hope it does better. I think the production delay was a factor, the release was too disconnected from announcement hype.

[@ishiggydiggy1410]

Damn, that's sad to hear. Hopefully they can find a way to keep going. But I'm not going to lie, I still haven't purchased the game, in fact I had completely forgotten about it. I remember getting excited for the game once I saw the announcement years ago, and then I heard nothing about it, until now I guess.

[@OKULTRACOMEDY]

Go purchase it lol it's not that expensive and it's truly a classic

[@iChannelz88]

Tbh i loved the original Braid and when i saw the Anniversary Edition trailer on Nintendo Direct my initial reaction was that the game didn’t need a remaster and then i let it go from my radar.

[@jon_swal4585]

This was genuinely sad to see. It's understandable but still sad. Game developer here myself and I legit bought it for the commentary

[@Ckombactman]

what game is he playing?

[@globalistgamer6418]

His Smile And Optimism: Gone

[@Dwaggienite]

He bet the farm on an anniversary edition of an admittedly cult-classic from 2008, announced it in 2020, due early 2021, went radio silent for three years about it, and then expects people to drop £20 on a game that had a few more levels and not much of a graphical upgrade. The marketing (if any) for the game was terrible. And, for those who are saying I'm here to cause mayhem, I'm not. I bought the original, and the anniversary edition day one on xbox, and enjoyed it. The fact of the matter is Jonathan Blow hasn't made a game for over 8 and a half years, has been spending his time writing a programming language noone gives a fuck about, and has been working on a sokoban game. Sounds like the problems are his choices. Complains about sales... doesn't advertise the game or go places to promote it. *Facepalm*

[@sanjacobs6261]

"A programming language no one gives a fuxk about" Brother, do you even program?

[@morgansmolder7891]

​@@sanjacobs6261​ "Nobody" might be hyperbole, but JAI is a super niche language only uber serious game/language programmers know about. The general thrust of the parent comment was that spending so much time on it probably wasn't such a good idea from a revenue point of view, which is pretty much undeniably true (at least for the moment and immediate future). Imo I doubt we'll see John sink anyway, he's nerd famous so there is always going to be some baseline level of interest in his projects. Worst case we just won't see Witness level production value on his future stuff.

[@snowflyer9737]

I finished the game, and while it was fine, it feels simple compared to the Witness which is an utter masterpiece of game design. I haven't gotten to the commentaries yet though, which is half of the reason I bought it. I plan to listen to all of those soon.

[@6IGNITION9]

"You just have to know what you did was a good thing even if the world doesn't acknowledge it." sometimes the invisible hand doesn't have eyeballs

[@blarghblargh]

and most of the time the invisible hand isn't actually invisible, and is driven by the owners. like in our universe

[@garbo7550]

I think if it wasn't 3 years late with radio silence the entire time things would have been very different

[@McMarioG]

Well that’s a bummer. I had a truly wonderful experience with Braid Anniversary. I had not revisited the game since it released in 2008 and I was 14 at the time. I remember being so disappointed in myself that I had to look up nearly all the solutions! I wanted to be so smart then ahah I always remembered it as an impossibly difficult game even after playing the witness. So I was very surprised to come back to it now at 30 and have years of experience suddenly transform the concepts that stumped me into glorious games of thought and inventiveness. Then the documentary was a beautiful exploration of what causes those revelations to occur with the correct observations and attention to design of the level, design of the rules etc. it was such a wholesome and artful experience and I truly felt enriched. Then I jumped into the witness which I had beaten back in release (with much greater success at the age of 22 and the occasional help of a friend) but had never gotten all environmental puzzles or beaten the mountain challenge. So I finally did that and as with Braid, it came to me with a fluidity that I had not had in previous playthrough. Prior knowledge of the game certainly helped but I was finally seeing and understanding the systems and themes and the holistic reinforcement of everything in everything else that the game was striving for and which the Braid commentary so fondly discusses. Suddenly the meaning of both the games (the pursuit of knowledge/truth and creation/destruction, life and passion) were all ringing so clearly to me and it made me better at understanding where, how and why the games wanted me to look somewhere. I thought after a lifetime of gaming I knew it all about reading design, but seeing the true level of poetry that is weaved into every aspect of how these games were thought up was revelatory. I don’t know what else is at the zenith of art, entertainment and programming like these games. There’s not even enough I can say. So I had a couple of revelations. I wish I could give Thekla money for that.

[@Rr-uf1ox]

nice reddit post

[@McMarioG]

@@Rr-uf1ox thanks bud

[@TrailerTrashMovies]

On the off chance JB pulls up this comment section… it sounds like he is aware that he is making art that will outlive him. That doesn’t make it suck any less when something doesn’t perform in the short term how you want or need it to, but speaking as one of the people who bought Braid AE day one and enjoyed every second of replaying it and listening to the commentary, I hope he knows that he is doing good work that will exist long after we are all gone. And I hope that the economics make that work feasible for him.

[@youtubesuresuckscock]

Reality check: the games he made will absolutely not outlive him. No one will think twice about any of his games 50 years from now. Aesthetically, they're flat out bad. Gameplay wise, if you're generous, they're mediocre, but if you're even somewhat picky, they're boring and not worth your time. There are way better games to play.

[@blarghblargh]

yes, that is his intent

[@disquettepoppy]

Which makes his faith in capitalism so much stupider

[@FlameForgedSoul]

Souljaboy stay winning.

[@jupiterapollo4985]

😂

[@coolumar335]

It makes me feel a tiny bit better that I finally purchased The Witness in the recent Steam Summer sale. Don't know if Jon's ever considered a Kickstarter for the Sokoban project or JAI compiler, but people would be willing to fund it...

[@sumofat4994]

He could just open source the compiler would not need to pay anyone for sure.

[@lekretka]

@@sumofat4994 well, making product open source and using free working force is an option, but it's not always good one. People need to be reviewed, people need to have right vision, also, paid team is usually better than team that is working by enthusiasm.

[@eliuthperez1064]

​@@sumofat4994He said that jai is in a very premature stage and he doesn't want to release some half baked language (plus, he despise the foss model of development 😅)

[@NegatioNZor]

I always keep thinking "I would probably pay some sort of Patreon to be in the compiler beta", since it's been X years of waiting at this point. Hope they figure something out.

[@sumofat4994]

@@eliuthperez1064 Half baked for him is still pretty damn good in fact good enough to be used in production for lots of things. FOSS maybe the only way to get "free labor" but also lots of headaches for sure. I think def pay to use jai compiler would be worthy. Its actually that unique that I would pay something reasonable for it on a per month basis.

[@wesbanderson664]

braid is one of my favourite games and i was extremely interested in the remaster when it was announced. i had no idea it was actually released until a couple weeks after launch and had to actively search for it 🤷

[@LittleWeevil]

What he said about knowing what they did was good despite poor sales is interesting. It's something I've heard artists/game devs say before, that if they can make sure they're artistically satisfied with what they've done, that can make a lack of revenue/acknowledgement more bearable.

[@hellorandomperson221]

I'ts a cope.

[@LittleWeevil]

@@hellorandomperson221 Thank you for your grammatically incorrect input. Maybe wipe the drool off your keyboard before you start typing next time.

[@XeenimChoorch-nx8wx]

@LittleWeevil cope

[@LittleWeevil]

@@hellorandomperson221 But seriously I don't even understand your point. How could such a simple, fair observation be disagreeable? A cope? A cope of what? I would guess that you mean a cope for poor sales? I mean yeah that's the whole point, being satisfied in one way makes being dissatisfied in another more bearable. Is this hard for you to follow? If you've never made anything then I guess it could be hard to wrap your head around, but people who pursue creative endeavors usually don't do it *just* for money. They (should) do it primarily to satisfy their creative urges, bring ideas to life. That's the main thing they're after. So the point isn't a "cope" it's a simple observation on the nature of operating in a creative field. Vast majority of creatives will never see success, but that doesn't stop lots of people from trying, because again, the reason they do it isn't to make pots of cash, it's to satisfy creative urges. Saying "cope" like the whole point is a masquerade hiding a different reality is absurd when 99% of creatives, lots of whom are very active in their art, will never see success. This doesn't invalidate them, it's just the way of things.

[@archie8747]

You just need to collab with souja boy for him to replay this masterpiece

[@martinzen]

Sounds like there was no marketing, in which case big mistake

[@4.0.4]

That's probably the same marketing budget of the first one. There was a lot of word of mouth, the Indie Game movie, etc.

[@kenalverson3035]

Problem was there was hype in 2020 when it was announced and then radio silence. I was checking every few weeks for release news back then, but gave up years ago. Just now found out it actually released…

[@lessthankris]

I didn't even see that this came out. I was waiting for it.

[@MochaRitz]

You know, this guy has went from a game designer I idolized in my teens, to somebody i regularly look to as a cautionary tale. Think of how well positioned Jon Blow is in the industry, and how he manages to fumble it, while blaming everything else. Jon, market your remaster if you need those funds to support your company. Release a smaller project. What are these expectations?

[@seriouscat2231]

I have never seen him blame anyone else.

[@thewiseowl8804]

@@seriouscat2231Did you watch the video you're commenting on?

[@seriouscat2231]

@@thewiseowl8804, simply observing that something did not perform as expected is not blaming it, because blame implies moral fault. He never said that people are evil for not buying his game.

[@seriouscat2231]

@@thewiseowl8804, so instead of being snarky you could have assumed I watched it and that we disagree on the definition of blame.

[@thewiseowl8804]

@@seriouscat2231 I did assume you watched the video lol; it was a rhetorical question. He’s not owning up to his failure. He can blame game conventions, platforms, and the market, but the more obvious truth is that he made a product that will appeal to virtually nobody. He made it for himself yet treated it like it would be a smash hit for whatever reason. It’s pretty hilarious, actually.

[@pleggli]

The commentary was widely confusing to navigate, really hard to keep track of what you already listened to or not so I didn't finish half of it because of it probably. I don't think that affected sales much though because that is something you start looking at after finishing the game.

[@ringofkaren]

ok, he made 2 games in 16 years with milions as income ... now he is reselling the same game.

[@blarghblargh]

porting and redoing art and doing an novel style of commentary aren't exactly 5 minute jobs, but please, over-simplify and describe more processes you obvious don't understand.

[@ringofkaren]

@@blarghblargh I actually just ported old 2d animations in 4k, after starting to do it by hand I realized AI could do 98% of job, it was very fast. You don't know who you are thanking to. Anyway I was saying you can't expect to sell a game the you have already widely sold, if it's not Skyrim. If hd graphics of a 2d platform is the only thing you publish in 10 years, you can't complain about business not going well... Not that he really cares, he is a multimillionaire.

[@MarbleThumbs]

​@ringofkaren AI sucks shit at upscaling old cartoons, truly ruins the image most of the time, nobody wants an AI remaster. I understand what you're saying, it's hypocritical for people to shit on Skyrim re-releases then praise this as a masterwork, but there's more to a good remaster than "run it through the 4K machine" as the GTA Trilogy has shown us.

[@CPSPD]

truly a visionary. maybe a couple more years wasting his time at making a new language will help. how can someone fail upwards for this long lmao.

[@blarghblargh]

@@ringofkaren if AI can do your job, the job you did was not a good one. I do know who I'm talking to, someone who hasn't yet developed any skills and who is already outsourcing their own job before they develop any. you're not a game dev or an artist. you're what we would call a "script kiddie" back in the day. spend your time developing and honing your abilities, not finding ways to cheat yourself from gaining experience. good results come from hard work, not shortcuts.

[@blueink-r7h]

It's blow-ver.

[@blueink-r7h]

@potatopower2144 I'm a big fan of Jonathan and Casey actually. They really helped me level-up my programming.

[@matthewt8214]

As a massive fan of the original I bought the anniversary edition immediately on release. But I'm one of those niche fans. A true sequel would have probably made much bigger waves.

[@nerdError0XF]

Honestly really wanted to hear something on it from Jon, thanks for the clips Bought Braid: AE on release, and bought it for all my friends on sale Really hope it will be enough to at least release the next game

[@gvulture1277]

I'm not a Blow fan but I like watching these videos, Braid Anniversary's problem is this it changed the original art and not just enhanced it, the game itself is very short and when you've already played the original it's like not worth replaying when the original is on your Steam Library and still works on every Operating System. Short games aren't like a bad thing but there's a reason why Valve didn't ask people to pay for Portal RTX when Nvidia developed that, they know that people wouldn't be interested in it. That's basically it, at first when Braid Anniversary was announced my reaction was "that's really cool because that Xbox Live Arcade original was a big deal, it's very quaint" but as it released I just realised it's pointless to me. Edit: I checked Steam Store page for original Braid and the developer/publisher removed it, obviously to boost sales on the remaster so for that move, whoever had that idea is a bastard. GOG still sells it but the fact that you did a shitty tactic big publishers do by scrubbing the original version from history is a complete bastard move. ORIGINAL VERSIONS SHOULD ALWAYS BE AVAILABLE IF YOU THINK VIDEO GAMES ARE ART, KEEP THE ORIGINAL ART.

[@williamshakemilk2192]

1:42 Jesus Christ poor guy Im ashamed that abrupt transition made me laugh

[@TR-707]

😮 theres even rain and sad music

[@TranquilMarmot]

I didn't even realize that Braid Anniversary Edition was a thing or that it was released?!

[@markoates9057]

Great video! Great cuts, very informative 💪

[@NdyyGameDev]

He's actually so real and raw, love it!

[@MinnoqWV]

Well that sucks. They did a great job.

[@youtubeenjoyer1743]

Should have made a gacha game with huge teets instead.

[@nesmario123]

if soulja boy marketed this special edition it would be selling like crazy. no, i am not joking.

[@0ia]

5:01 "Showing your game in public is a good deadline."

[@sergeysmyshlyaev9716]

Yeah, Silksong playable demo at E3 2019 looked really good.

[@sebas1111_]

I don't understand what you're trying to say, other than quoting Blow

[@0ia]

@@sebas1111_ Oh i'm just saving this for later there's nothing to it

[@captainnoyaux]

oh sad to hear about braid anniversary, I did my part and bought 3, one for me and 2 for my family ! What an awesome game

[@MIchaelArlowe]

The first time I heard of it was when this randomly popped up on my feed, that might have something to do with it.

[@AnimeGIFfy]

saying that a niche indie game doesn't benefit from being shown at cons, so it may spread a bit more through the word of mouth, is a bit.. baffling.

[@ZXM500]

No he is right about that. Cons are great and good to attend but they are not a great marketing tool. If you compare the number of people that will see your game at a con vs the number of people that will see a trailer or play a steam demo. It's not that it has no marketing value it's just very cost and time inefficient.

[@JoaoRelego]

I love braid, I had no ideia of this launch! First time learning about it, by chance

[@xabbott]

I didn't even know the remaster came out.

[@CrAzYpotpie]

Nobody did, and I don't care. Playing that game one time back when it came out is enough.

[@icesickle]

I don't know why but when tried to search for the game in steam, I only got the demo of the original. No matter how I searched the anniversary edition didn't pop up. The link in the pinned comment works though.

[@sheldonlt]

I’d consider myself a huge fan of Braid and Blow in general but this was the first time I’d even heard of the remaster. Honestly very very poor promotion of this amazing game.

[@snowflyer9737]

Honestly, this may be a good thing in that it will force them to release the Sokoban game. It has been 8 years, nearing on 9 since the Witness.

[@blarghblargh]

finishing the game before the runway was running out would have been better. but yeah, I'm looking forward to buying and playing it.

[@stranger0-00]

Social media and major first party channels can help. I wonder if there'll be any sort of post-launch marketing pushes like arranging to put a new trailer out with those platforms if possible during a high visibility period.

[@glyntaylorwilliams]

This. He should have pushed this game as a new way of doing developer commentary. I see promotion is not his strongest point. Without Xbox Live Arcade, you need to adapt.

[@limarchenko96]

18000 new steam games this year and number keeps growing by 27% each year. Competition is getting more and more fierce.

[@loli42]

90% of that is hentai matching games and transgender visual novels

[@tiranito2834]

@@loli42 heyyyy, good to see you here, how's your game going?

[@loli42]

@@tiranito2834 YO, thanks for asking! the game's going slow but steady for now because of technology related autism.

[@rayecast]

@@loli42 Because of these comments I went to your channel hoping to see that you were working on a game related to your name but was disappointed :(

[@loli42]

@@rayecast i need to make a cube world clone with breedable lxlis *(This user was banned for this post.)*

[@ferreira4962]

The problem its not the industry is the people.

[@oscareriksson9414]

Fuck it I will get it now

[@Yugioh_Turk]

Thanks. Now the sales are terrible minus two

[@Sychonut]

Terrible minus two then

[@the0nlytrueprophet942]

I legit didn't realise the new update had more levels in it so I didn't give a shit about it. Not sure why that didn't get through to me, not sure about anyone else

[@maliciouscompliance6489]

I follow Blow as a figure, buy is stuff, watch his talks, and I'll likely buy his next project day one, but have zero interest in a juiced up remaster. I'd expect his fans to be more interested in his next big thing than a tour of a previous work with a fresh coat of paint. I would have watched and even paid for a documentary about the making of either of them!

[@edhahaz]

Wondering how Netflix did

[@LordOfLemon]

it feels so surreal every time someone uses the Rain World sountrack in their videos. I'm still used to it being a "hidden gem" on the Steam store page years ago, but it seems Downpour really pulled in a new audience. Good for them :D

[@c0xb0x]

How does this man not have a single gray hair

[@-Engineering01-]

He's gray inside

[@HitlerStalinProductions]

he's bald...

[@danielwarren3138]

I really feel for him - but I could see the bad sales coming a mile away when I realised that only me and what seemed like a dozen other people on the planet were actually anticipating its release. The game is great though - Braid is still probably the best game I've ever played.

[@deadrift886]

tbh the reveal trailer was 3 years ago, and it didn't really generate buzz after that.

[@LouPeabody]

it's looking grim

[@LWmusik]

This dude has a weird attitude tbh

[@FrankyThree]

I, for one, was a big fan of the remaster and inclusion of extra content. I appreciate getting that Platinum on PS5

[@riebeck1986]

Which is the game he is playing ?

[@BlowFan]

The Zachtronics Solitaire Collection

[@spfy]

Wow I watch Jon clips any chance I get but somehow did not keep up enough to know that this game came out and that he was not happy with the sales. I want his studio to do well. I just bought it on Steam to hopefully show some support.

[@ARottenMuffin]

Feel bad for him but also I never even heard about this outside of this channel, and I already had Braid on my list as a game I know about but never got around to buying and playing. I bought the Witness and it's one of those games I started and enjoyed but needed to get back to as I never even finished that. Think they really wasted the potential here as I'm not sure if it's as easy to make an indie game relevant anymore, not to mention I don't know any specifics of the remaster, but I think most people would go and just buy the original for cheaper or on sale if they were going to try it. What they probably should have done for this is timed it or waited and released it in sync so it came out with Jonathons newest release as either a bundle for extra money coming with both games, or standalone but when there's more talk about this new game that leads into the remaster, maybe even release it a month before and anyone who buys it gets early access to the brand new game, or a sneak peek through a limited time beta of the first chapter like he played for that witness artstyle ripoff game lol.

[@ArthurSchoppenweghauer]

For some reason this feels like a survivor in 28 Days Later detailing the state of their mental and physical deterioration after being infected.

[@delicious_seabass]

Sadge.

[@kantallive]

What's the name of the card game he was playing?

[@larfeeheelarfeehee9600]

It's a Zachtronics game. I think it was Solitaire Collection. They also have another game called Last Call BBS, which is also a bunch of mini games, which feature some of the same Solitaire games.

[@whiteZORA1]

i had no idea Braid had a remaster

[@steviejohn]

I remember this game getting announced a WHILE ago, I remember catching back up a year or two later and seeing nothing still, and now here I am, a couple months late, and I didn't even know this game finally released until now despite having some interest in it

[@c0xb0x]

Are there any vod archives around or any other way to access his streams non-live?

[@letheward6]

If you don't know already, you can estimate relative sales based on Steam review count: Braid, AE - 600 Stephen's Sausage Roll - 1200 Myst (2021) - 1300 Riven (2024) - 1600 System Shock (2023) - 7000 The Witness - 14000 Persona 3 Reload - 17000 NieR Replicant (2021) - 18000 Final Fantasy VII Remake - 24000 The Last of Us (2023) - 31000 Balatro - 40000 Isaac: Rebirth - 270000 Elden Ring - 700000 Of course there are console sales but this does show something. I think remasters don't sell much is kinda expected.

[@raccoonlad]

Yeah he should've stuck with the sokobon game honestly, I've been looking forward to that game for like 7 years(?) now. Crazy that it hasn't come out yet, or that there's not even a steam page or trailer

[@Muskar2]

I noticed Braid AE was casually mentioned in a GMTK video, but I have not heard of a single 1M+ creator streaming or let's playing it in anyway, which I would suspect is a big marketing mistake (admitting I have no experience with marketing games). I literally think this might be the biggest video I've seen about the game, and it only has 25k views as of writing.

[@nerdError0XF]

Honestly i only knew about the release because i check jons twitter like once a month for news like that If not for that, 90% chance i would've missed it really sad to hear that stuff

[@jeffcross9960]

I was waiting for a physical version... I already own the game digitally. I know the game has new stuff but what's the point if I can't "own" it...

[@shauno6893]

The commentary is neat but I don't understand why JBlow would think that alone would sell the game. How about new puzzles or some game modifiers or something to give the game replay value?

[@john_hunter_]

@potatopower2144 One of the top reviews on the Steam page is how the new puzzles aren't really new puzzles.

[@B.Evil.C]

I owned the original on Steam and never knew about the enhanced edition. I cannot even see any mention of the enhanced edition on the Library page for Braid but that might be because of its removal from Steam.

[@BrigadoonZyphoon]

Who? What? Is this the guy that alt-F4'd out of Animal Well?

[@salbertron]

This makes me want to join his channel just to ask him how sales are going.

[@MatiasGRodriguez]

OK. As someone that appreciates Jon's work I just bought the game.

[@-Engineering01-]

Candy Crusy generated more revenue than Call Of Duty, Fortnite and PUBG combined. So take this information as you wish.

[@bobba515]

The only reason Braid hit to begin with is that it was a decent indie game released when those werent that common. Now we get good indie games almost every day

[@iamtheju]

I don't know how much it would contribute to poor sales but the game is free on Netflix. I was thinking of buying it but it seems silly to do when it's free to me already.

[@clickrush]

JB has reach and is well respected. If he went on podcasts/interviews to promote this remaster people would have known about it, but judging from the comments etc nobody did. He also has followers on Twitter but uses it to complain about politics instead of talking about game dev things. It's a shame!